Traditionally automobiles have been manufactured from steel, with body panels and non-structural components produced by pressing flat sheets of stock material into the required shape. Considerable amounts of energy are needed to produce steel panels, both in producing the stock sheets and in operating the heavy presses that are needed to form the panels. The resulting automobiles are also relatively heavy.
Recently there has been a drive towards reducing the weight of vehicles. One way to do this is to reduce the amount of steel used in the construction of the vehicle. Aluminium can be used instead of steel, using the same types of press and stock sheets of aluminium. This process is still relatively energy intensive.
An alternative solution is to use carbon fiber components instead of steel. A carbon fiber article, in the context of this application, refers to an article of manufacture produced at least in part using fiber reinforced polymeric composite material. Typically this will comprise a composite of carbon fiber filaments and a resin as the polymer. However, the carbon fibers may be mixed with other filaments in the composite material.
Carbon fiber reinforced composite material is known to be capable of being formed into extremely strong and lightweight components. The carbons fiber provide the strength of the material, being difficult to stretch, while the resin holds the fibers in place. Varying the direction of the fibers enables the properties of the carbon fiber product to be varied. Carbon fibers are typically woven into sheets or mats that are laid one on top of the other in a mold and then soaked in resin which is heated under pressure until it is cured to form a rigid finished composite.
The manufacture of parts in carbon fiber using traditional techniques is very time intensive and as such has mostly been limited to high value, low volume sportscar manufacture. It has found its way into more mainstream automobiles in the form of non-structural components such as bootlids or bonnets or seat parts, but again the manufacturing process has been slow making these parts expensive to produce. In particular, existing manufacturing techniques are very labor intensive and as such to produce and unsuited to high speed production line processes.
The present invention is aimed at ameliorating some of the problems of prior art carbon fiber component manufacture with the wider aim of opening up the process to mass production of parts for automobiles.